


We had a team up...you were great

by delmcatee



Category: Planetary - Warren Ellis
Genre: Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-21
Updated: 2011-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-27 17:18:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/298184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delmcatee/pseuds/delmcatee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the death of Ambrose Chase, Jakita Wagner tries her hand at doing cases solo. Fortunately for her she meets someone who gives her a little help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We had a team up...you were great

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Liviapenn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liviapenn/gifts).



> So many wonderful ideas in your letter but for some reason your alternate ideas sounded the loudest and wouldn't let me write anything else.

Ambrose Chase was dead.

She had to accept that and move on. Facts were facts. Irrefutable and unchangeable. Ambrose Chase was dead and there wasn’t anything she could do about it. Only problem was, when you were in Jakita’s line of work, seeing the impossible everyday made you think the impossible. But dead is dead right? In all their cases there had never been an example of someone coming back from the dead except as the odd ghost or ghost-like phenomenon. Hints or memories of what had happened before...

 _Oh what the hell am I thinking?_ Jakita scolded herself as she watched the clouds fly by on her flight from Germany to Gotham City. Off to the next case. Keeping busy. She flew by herself and would handle this case by herself despite Drummer’s protests. Losing one team member was enough. Fortunately the challenge of finding a replacement for Ambrose proved to be more tempting to the Drummer than a field action. That or facing a safe and boring computer terminal proved more appealing than risking life and limb. Or maybe Drummer just relished some alone time with his computer.

“Can I get you anything?” a flight attendant asked, interrupting her thoughts.

“Yes please,” she replied, grateful for the distraction from thoughts of The Drummer’s libido. “Mineral water...and a blanket.”

“I’ll be right back.”

After finishing her drink and curling up beneath the blanket, Jakita watched a little girl eat a Klondike bar and smiled at the memory the ice cream’s logo invoked.

 _“Do you really need to prove to the bear how strong you are?” Elijah asked. She had been seven when she had stumbled into her first bear in the Black Forest and had accidentally killed it in her panic. Now nearly nine, she had learned to fight much better as well as how to recognize the signs of bears so she wasn’t surprised by them any more. She still enjoyed fighting with them, though, so didn’t try too hard to avoid them._

 _  
“What do you mean?” she asked dodging the angry bears lumbering attack.   
_

_  
“Well first of all, why are you fighting him in the first place? You could easily run away. Second, why are you using your strength against him instead of using his strength against him?”   
_

_  
The question had startled her enough that she had froze which had allowed the bear one good hit which had sent her flying into some bushes.   
_

\-------------------------------------------------

Forty-eight hours later she awoke. 

She didn’t realize so much time had passed at first but she knew something was wrong considering she was hanging in the air and bound by what felt like chains. She didn’t know for sure as she hadn’t opened her eyes yet. When you go to sleep on an airplane and wake up hanging and bound, it’s usually a good idea to try and learn as much of your surroundings as you can before you reveal you’re awake. 

The air felt damp and earthy, a cave? She didn’t hear anything but she didn’t trust that yet. Whomever had bound her knew what they were doing as well.

Her arms were bound together and behind her back which made trying to pull them apart difficult. She was also hanging by a harness anchored to her chest so she had no leverage to push against. She was sure she could get herself free eventually, assuming these were steel chains, but it would take time. Would her capture allow her that time? With a wry grin she thought perhaps she should have given Elijah’s escapology instruction a fair chance. But then when you can break most metals barehanded was there really a point? The answer was obvious to her now.

“I know you’re awake,” a woman’s voice echoed.

Definitely a cave. “Have we been introduced?” Jakita asked giving up the pretence of unconsciousness. “I usually don’t do the kinky stuff until the second date.”

The woman laughed before replying, “Somewhat. What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Why should I tell you? My current state doesn’t speak well of your intentions.”

“Fair enough. But I need to be sure you aren’t going to attack me again. You are joking, which is a good sign.” The voice paused then, long enough Jakita wondered if she had left but then a hydraulic motor sounded and she felt herself being lowered. “I think on the ground you should be able to free yourself. Please excuse my poor manners for not doing it for you. Until I’m certain of my safety, we’ll continue this way.”

As she was lowered, Jakita looked around and realized she was in fact in a cave which seemed honeycombed with openings. Her shy host could be anywhere. Still, Jakita was fast and could probably find her if the need arose. For now though, she’d play nice. Once on the ground she set to work freeing herself which was much easier with all the nice stalagmites to hook the chains over so she could get proper leverage. 

Freed, she stretched a bit and looked around some more. Still not much. “So what now? We play hide and seek or are we going to try and be adults?”

“Let’s play twenty questions instead,” the voice said with a hint of a smile. “You were working on a case?”

“Still don’t see why I should be sharing any information with you.”

“Okay, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. You can call me Batwoman. Do you remember your name?”

 _Batwoman? Crap, I hate capes._ Jakita thought before answering, “Jakita but that’s all you getting of my name.”

“Fair enough. You were working on a case; a case which we happened to share. Does the Slender Man mean anything to you?”

Startled, Jakita replied, “Actually yes. I was reading the case file.”

“I’m afraid you did more than just read the case file, you had an encounter with the Slender Man. According to Metropolis Air, your flight landed over forty-eight hours ago. Thirty-six hours ago we both stumbled upon the Slender Man but you were unprepared, though I took a look at your case file while you were out and I can see why. There was nothing about his ability to control minds.”

“Wait, ‘control minds’? What happened?” Jakita’s temper was flaring and she really wanted something to hit. She _hated_ mind control.

“At first we worked together, after the usual conflict our sort tend to get into. We had cornered the Slender Man in Grant Park and since you seemed so knowledgeable about our target, I assumed you knew about his apparent abilities. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case as I found out when you nearly broke four of my ribs. I was able to escape and later to subdue you with, I hope, minimal damage. How are you feeling?”

“I’ve a bit of a headache and my shoulders are a little sore,” Jakita growled before wrinkling her nose. “And what is that smell?”

“Vicks vapor rub. I believe the Slender Man uses pheromones and subsonics to control minds...or at least to lower a victims guard. Which is also why we are in this cave. I have some earplugs you can wear to prevent his controlling you again.”

“So what now?” she asked completely done with patience. She wanted to be out there smashing heads not sitting in here chatting...where ever here was.

“Now we hunt,” Batwoman said; her voice for the first time not echoing as she stepped into the chamber. Jakita had to admit she cut a nice figure and couldn’t help the smile when she saw Batwoman wore flat boots with an almost military air about them. She wasn’t sure about the long hair though. Unless Batwoman was super humanly fast like herself, long hair was a convenient hand hold in a fight. Of course so was a cape.

“Got any place in mind?” Jakita said with a grim smile. She was going to enjoy showing the Slender Man how much she hated mind control.

“Let’s start with Grant Park since most of the murders associated with him center there and that’s the last place we saw him.”

\-------------------------------------------------

After three hours of searching the park, they decided to check out other sites. Another two hours of riding on the back of Batwoman’s motorcycle and Jakita was ready to stretch her legs. Not that there was any thing wrong with riding behind the cape but Jakita was just getting frustrated with their lack of success. They decided to split up and cover as much of Gotham as possible, Jaktia running and Batwoman on her bike.

Five hours and only one possible sighting later, they decided to give up for the day. They thought they had had him but unless he could fold himself into shadows, they had either fooled themselves or the Slender Man was a teleporter. Jaktia wasn’t sure if this case could get worse.

Three days later, still no success and Jakita had given all the time she could to the case.

“I think he’s gone,” she admitted through clenched teeth.

“I’m afraid you are correct,” Batwoman replied over her shoulder as they watched a clearing in the Grant Park from a rooftop. “I was afraid of this, several unsolved cases from Gotham Central suggested it.”

“I’ve got to fly out tomorrow as well.”

“Well, thank you for your help. Sorry about the bruises,” she replies with a smirk.

“No problem,” Jakita quipped in return. “Sorry about the broken ribs. You wanna tell me how you incapacitated me?”

Batwoman shook her head. “A girl’s got to keep her secrets.”

“Fine,” Jakita said with a sigh as she pulled out a business card. “I travel a lot but if you find any leads, give me a call. Or if you need any help.”

“I doubt I’ll ever need help but thanks,” Batwoman said accepting the card and pulling out one of her own. “And same for you. This is just an answering service though, so I might take a day or so to return your call.”

“Understood,” Jakita replied taking the card. She looked out over the park before turning back to the cape. “You're pretty good.”

Beneath her mask, Batwoman arched an eyebrow. “I feel validated.”

“You interested in more international cases?”

“Are you offering me a job?”

“Yeah, I guess I am. I work for a corporation that does stuff like this all over the world. Well, not all of it involves murder cases but each is just as strange.”

Batwoman looked at her for a good minute before smiling. “Not that I don’t appreciate the offer but I think this city is enough for me right now.”

“Fair enough. How about a retainer then? For business within Gotham. Basically weird stuff like this goes down, you file a report. If a team from the company comes, you help out.”

“On one condition, I’m autonomous. Your company doesn’t control me, I call my own shots.”

“Done,” Jakita replied offering her hand. “Welcome to the Planetary corporation.”

\-------------------------------------------------

While she waited for her flight to board, Jakita called Drummer to check in.

“All’s peachy Jaki!”

“Call me that again and you’ll be holding a pencil in your mouth to work your keyboard.”

“Woah, touchy.”

“How do things stand?”

“Safe as houses but no chickens,” Drummer replied with a sigh. “Lots of possible replacements but no one stands out.”

“I’ve got a new contact here in Gotham but I’ll tell you about it when I get in. Speaking of, I think it’s time we saw _The Falcon and the Snowman_ again.”

“What?” Drummer squeaked. Jakita could hear the thump of the chair legs landing as he sat up straight. “I...uh...thought you didn’t want to see that movie anymore.”

“I’ve changed my mind. I miss experiencing Timothy Dutton and Sean Penn’s youthful vigor. I’ll be in the office in four hours, make it so.”

“You got it,” Drummer replied barely able to hide the excitement in his voice.

If there was anything the past few days had proved to Jakita, it was that she couldn’t work alone. It was time to bring Elijah back home.


End file.
